School education secretary stresses on importance of having similar syllabus across country

It is very important for school curriculum to be similar across various boards in the country, said Sanjay Kumar, secretary, school education and literacy, Union Ministry of Education. He encouraged state boards to take inspiration from and adapt textbooks prepared by the NCERT. Kumar was speaking at the National Kala Utsav organised at YASHADA, Pune, where 855 students from across the country showcased their skills in the performing arts.

Kumar said, “Of the most important of the works undertaken by NCERT is the national curriculum has been prepared and excellent books are being published under the leadership of Dr Saklani (NCERT director). And the policy this time has been that the textbooks will be in all the 22 official languages. I have always requested states that they should have a look at these textbooks and adapt and adopt them. It is very necessary that across the country, the curriculum is the same.”

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NCERT, New Delhi, has been organising the National Kala Utsav annually since 2015, and this is the first time the festival has been conducted in a city other than Delhi. Speaking about the event, Kumar said, “Art is an inseparable part of school teaching just like humanities and science… I was told by Professor Jyotsna Tiwari that the beginning stage of the event had almost 32,000 schools and 1,33,00 students. From there state selection and national selection (took place), and now we have 855 students in Pune with 125 escorts.”